The Perfect American Symbol
The ordinary American fighting the corrupt system, working to make the world a safer and more just place is “the perfect American symbol”. Renee Good and Alex Pretti are two such examples. Be them.
Part-way through writing this week’s article the unthinkable happened again. ICE/CBP agents murdered another American citizen in cold blood on a cold street in Minneapolis during a general strike. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse at the VA hospital. He was helping another person when he was beaten to the ground and shot several times by federal agents. Videos of the incident show that he was never a threat at any time to anyone before the agents murdered him.
Within the past month we’ve witnessed the deaths of three citizens at the hand of federal agents—Keith Porter was murdered by an off duty ICE agent in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, Renee Good and Alex Pretti shot by ICE/CBP in Minneapolis in January while working as legal observers. Three Americans who had long lives to look forward to have been cut down early by the fascist state. They are symbols and martyrs of the Revolution… The Revolution that is being born even as I type this.
Rest in power, Alex, Renee, and Keith. May we do you proud.
The following poems posted by Sony Thăng on his X account inspired my article. You’ll see why.
Trump is the perfect American symbol. A loudmouth preacher of greatness standing on a mountain of debt, spectacle, and unpaid human cost. He is the flag turned into a product. The gospel turned into a grift. The empire turned into a reality show. Trump says "America First," and you thought he meant you. You thought he meant your bills. Your town. Your children’s future. But "America First" has never meant the American people. It has meant the American war machine. The American billionaire. The American shield for Israeli impunity. It means bombs before books. Jets before jobs. Sanctions before hospitals. He wraps empire in a flag and sells it to you as patriotism. You cheer while your schools crumble. You chant while your bridges collapse. You wave the banner that is being used to rob you blind. America First is not a policy. It is a costume. And behind it there is only a hand signing away your future to keep someone else’s empire alive.
The Perfect American Symbol
by C. A. Matthews
If things appear to be falling apart, so much the better.
The global capitalists’ empire truly is a “reality show” of sorts. It’s scripted by the twelve richest men in the world and acted out by their chosen politician-puppets. The entire plot of this sick and twisted reality show has become more and more obvious over the last few years. It can be summed up simply: Endless War for Endless Profits.
Millions of deaths are necessary in order to generate the trillions of dollars’ worth of profits for those lucky billionaires (or oligarchs if you prefer that term). I mean, you wouldn’t buy a killer drone or an AI surveillance program that hasn’t been extensively tested, would you? You wouldn’t waste your money on something that doesn’t work as advertised, right?
What better place to test out your new “toys” than in an open-air concentration camp called Gaza? It’s full of frail human bodies to crush, explode, and dismember at will. And once it has been emptied and turned into a luxury resort, they’ll just move the weapons testing on to a new location. Hmm… How about Minneapolis?
These twelve super-wealthy white males didn’t get filthy rich by holding back any. They didn’t get rich by having morals or practicing compassion. Eight decades ago, about the same time the apartheid regime in what is now called Israel formed, novelist George Orwell penned their mantra:
War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery.
Sony Thăng does it better by naming names in his poetry. It’s Donald Trump according to Sony who is the Dirty Dozen Billionaires’ current spokesman, but the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, spilled the beans recently. It isn’t only Trump, Biden, Obama, Bush 2, Clinton, Bush 1, Reagan, etc., who have played along with the sadistic wishes of these billionaire oligarchs over the years. There are plenty of others.
Carney admitted as much in a speech he gave at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland—a place that isn’t known for being a cross-section of the world, unless the planet is 100% white, mostly male, and super wealthy. Carney admitted that it wasn’t just the US practicing Endless War for profits. He said every single Western nation goes along with it. After all, their billionaires deserve some of those profits from the endless wars, too. Of course, some of the profits gets passed along to politicians like Mr. Carney for a job well done, too.
So, kudos for saying the truth out loud, Mark, but demerits for actually going along with these heinous economic crimes against mostly non-white human beings of the Global South and for your country’s help fueling the genocide of the Palestinian people. Your billionaires are proud of you, but you’ve forever ruined the stereotype of Canadians as quiet and polite people. Everyone will think of Canadians as quiet, polite war criminal profiteers like the rest of the WEF attendees from now on.
While Trump is the perfect American symbol and Carney is perhaps the perfect Canadian symbol, who is the “perfect symbol of genocide” of the twenty-first century? If you guessed Benjamin Netanyahu, give yourself a pat on the back and a tissue to cry into. He is, but in a way he isn’t.
After all, it’s Trump’s idea to form a “Board of Peace,” or at least he was given that idea by his billionaire owners (which is pretty much the same thing). The BoP essentially is a big real estate scam to build gated communities upon the ruins of Gaza for wealthy pedophiles/Westerners and for white settler Israelis who want to pretend they’re natives. To be the primary financier of a huge ethnic cleansing operation in order to profit from the land/resources grab puts Trump in the top spot, in my humble opinion.
Frankly, the entirety of the so-called Board of Peace delegation makes the perfect symbol of genocide. They rank up there alongside with Mr. Hitler and the Nazis. Great to be listed among such infamous figures, isn’t it? (Shh! Don’t tell Donnie that infamous doesn’t mean famous.)
Having said that, we must admit that Trump isn’t the only mass murdering US president. It was Joe Biden sitting (sleeping?) in the Oval Office in October 2023 when this latest round of violence against the Palestinians started. It was under Biden that the US began throwing dollar bills by the semi-truck-fulls at the IDF. Going back decades, each US president in turn has done his best to act as “the American shield for Israeli impunity” as Sony Thang puts it.
Only President John F. Kennedy didn’t quite go along with the newly formed AIPAC organization, but he didn’t stay in office for very long after he made some “antisemitic” comments about them being foreign agents. Funny that.
To sum up:
“As made clear by its Charter, the so-called Board of Peace is a lawless, autocratic mechanism headed by Donald Trump in his personal capacity, with few checks or balances, and no territorial limits, composed of U.S. vassals, war criminals, Zionist billionaires, and global grifters, and at least two genocidaires, offering premium membership to those paying a billion dollar bribe, and designed to side-step international law and international institutions,” human rights lawyer and former United Nations official Craig Mokhiber told Mondoweiss. “What could possibly go wrong?” —from Trump unveils so-called ‘Board of Peace’
What could possibly go wrong indeed.
Craig also had this to say about Carney’s speech:
“Yes, he revealed some important truths about the dangerous global order in which we live. But don’t be fooled by the Davos speech. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is no anti-imperialist champion of human rights and international law. He openly supports the genocide in Palestine and aggression against Venezuela and Iran. He just doesn’t like when the empire is mean to its vassals in the white world. Genocide and aggression in the Global South are not redlines. But tariffs on Western countries and threats to annex Canada and Greenland are. That is not a principled position. It’s just selfish, middle power lawlessness.”
Ouch! Touché.
The global capitalists’ empire is bigger than the US empire alone. It’s bigger than all the white-ruled Western nations combined. It’s a worldwide phenomenon that feeds the ever-hungry “Endless War for Endless Profits” machine. And we ordinary people are destined to remain trapped inside this machine if we don’t do our best to pull the plug on it as soon as possible.
So, when you see things falling apart—such as a paramilitary (Gestapo-like) organization killing, kidnapping, and trying to take over a US city in the name of “immigration control”—don’t cry. Get angry and fight back! The fascists in charge are hoping that we’ll all be too frightened and overwhelmed to pay any attention to how horribly our neighbors next door or in Venezuela, Iran, Lebanon, or Palestine… are being treated.
Luckily, activists in Minneapolis are paying attention. They are standing up against the fascist hooligans of ICE in the middle of a brutally cold winter. They are striking, skipping school, marching and chanting in the streets, and filming ICE agents’ every move. They are exposing ICE’s unlawful practices and taking notes for future court cases against the agency and its backers. Most of all, they are setting a brave example for the rest of us to follow when our turn comes.
We can’t afford to stick our heads in the sands like half-frozen ostriches. We must stand up to our oppressors. What we are seeing in this chaos is the beginning of the end—the dawn of a new and better society without “war criminals, Zionist billionaires, and global grifters” at the helm. It is a day worth fighting for, a day when the war machine is ended forever. Books will come before bombs, jobs before jets, hospitals and health care before death and sanctions.
The ordinary American fighting the corrupt system, working to make the world a safer and more just place is the “perfect American symbol”. Renee Good and Alex Pretti, murdered by ICE/CBP agents while working as legal observers and trying to help activists on the streets, are our perfect American symbols—not the likes of bloviating, death-dealing Donald Trump.
Workers everywhere and of every era who have ever attempted to pull down the “pillars of our society” (i.e., the billionaire oligarchs) should be called the perfect symbols of humanity. Their actions demonstrate that they are truly human, with a heart and a conscience. They follow a moral compass and demonstrate bravery during times of state-sponsored terror. They are our true heroes.
Craig gives us some more words of wisdom:
“The imperial boomerang has truly come home. The same forces and practices violating the human rights of people in Palestine and across the global South have now been unleashed on all of us living in the West. Even as the US-Israel Axis leaves a trail of blood across the globe, here at home, people are being surveilled by the state, sanctioned, expelled from school, fired from jobs, beaten and arrested by police, abducted by ICE, deported, and slandered by the government, just for defending human rights and speaking out against the Israeli regime and its US-funded apartheid and genocide. Now a rogue federal militia is terrorizing and murdering people in the streets. We are living in the belly of a beast that threatens to devour the very idea of human rights at home and abroad. The beast is buttressed by two corrupt parties, complicit media companies, corporations, tech oligarchs, billionaires, and ruthless lobbies. Most of all, it is buttressed by the apathy, ignorance, and inaction our neighbors. The hour is late. But the victory of tyranny over justice is not inevitable. This is our 1930s moment. Read history. Find courage. Resist this.”
It’s time to act heroically. There is no strength in ignorance, no freedom in being enslaved, and certainly no peace to be found in endless wars and genocides for the profits of a few billionaires at the expense of the oppressed majority of the world’s population. This is our moment.
Now is the time to take it to the streets, to the courts, to the capitals. Now is the time to tear the fascist regimes down and experience true democracy.
F*ck ICE! F*ck Israel! F*ck the billionaires! Power to the people!
Stay Informed—Read, Watch, Share & Support Indie Journalism…
How Minnesotans became Palestinians: Top 5 Ways they are Occupied https://www.juancole.com/2026/01/minnesotans-palestinians-occupied.html
CBP Agent Guns Down Minneapolis Nurse: Video Analysis https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/customs-border-patrol-agent-kills-minneapolis-nurse-video-analysis
ICE memo claims power to force entry into homes without judicial warrants, triggering Fourth Amendment alarm https://www.nationofchange.org/2026/01/23/ice-memo-claims-power-to-force-entry-into-homes-without-judicial-warrants-triggering-fourth-amendment-alarm/
White Cops in Minnesota Announce that ICE is Targeting Black and Brown Cops with Harassment While Leaving the White Cops Alone https://www.thenorthstar.com/p/white-cops-in-minnesota-announce
Minnesota On Strike https://prospect.org/2026/01/22/ice-trump-minnesota-minneapolis-state-general-strike/
Companies that supply ICE with pepper spray (our next targets to protest?) https://ragspassage.substack.com/p/companies-that-supply-ice-with-pepper
A world on its knees: Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ and the darkness it promises https://mondoweiss.net/2026/01/a-world-on-its-knees-trumps-board-of-peace-and-the-darkness-it-promises/
Western imperial alliance in crisis: Canada condemns USA, declaring ‘new world order’ in China https://www.geopoliticaleconomy.report/p/west-imperialism-canada-mark-carney-wef-china
When Is It Time to Break the Law? https://ourhistory.substack.com/p/when-is-it-time-to-break-the-law
The Palestinian Genocide: The Ultimate Evidence youtu.be/YBvHmGtm6lU
The Hidden War on Palestinian Women: Checkpoint Diaries Short Film https://balasan.org/the-hidden-war-on-palestinian-women-checkpoint-diaries-short-film/
Israeli Forces Demolish UNRWA Buildings in “Unprecedented Attack” https://truthout.org/articles/israeli-forces-demolish-unrwa-buildings-in-unprecedented-attack/
Israel Is Preparing Land in Rafah to Corral Palestinians into an Area Under Full Military Occupation www.dropsitenews.com/p/rafah-gaza-land-israel-razing-clearing-palestinian-housing-block
Fact Sheet: Chevron Fuels Israeli Apartheid and War Crimes https://afsc.org/chevron-fuels-israeli-apartheid-and-war-crimes
Striking Spanish Workers Just Showed That Amazon Is Not Invincible https://truthout.org/articles/striking-spanish-workers-just-showed-that-amazon-is-not-invincible/
Americans Must Go on Strike reformthesystem.substack.com/p/americans-must-go-on-strike
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism https://osbcontent.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/PC-00466.pdf
Oppose Israel’s Abuses While You Still Can www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/oppose-israels-abuses-while-you-still
State Dept Memos Admit It Had Almost No Grounds to Deport Pro-Palestine Students https://truthout.org/articles/state-dept-memos-admit-it-had-almost-no-grounds-to-deport-pro-palestine-students/
The Sieve: Sifting for Life in the Ashes of Sabra mirala.substack.com/p/the-sieve-sifting-for-life-in-the
Greenland Is Not a Prize https://scheerpost.com/2026/01/24/greenland-is-not-a-prize/
Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback https://www.404media.co/comic-con-bans-ai-art-after-artist-pushback
Synthetic sugar-coated nanoparticle blocks Covid-19 from infecting human cells https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250811/Synthetic-sugar-coated-nanoparticle-blocks-Covid-19-from-infecting-human-cells.aspx
"....To be the primary financier of a huge ethnic cleansing operation in order to profit from the land/resources grab puts Trump in the top spot, in my humble opinion....."
All of this follows in the footsteps of entities such as the Congo Free State, he Niger Company, , the East India Company, The Dutch East India Company, Firestones slavery-driven "concessions" in LIberia, and many others. Colonialsm was always a capitalist enterprise, and primarily for the enrichment of a tiny few ultrawealthy people.
January 30 is the next general strike planned. It should go nationwide. Plan a protest march or demo in your town and join the heroes of Minneapolis! ✊❤️🇵🇸